Speak!
by I.lie
Summary: Marron Kuririn officially died on February 1st, a cold, windy Saturday morning.
1. Drowning Pan

Disclaimer: Dragon Ball Z is property of Akira Toriyama, Funimation, and associates of which one I am not.   
  
Thanks/Authors Note/Etc.: I've re-written the ending and re-titled this story, (previously titled "Supertoys Don't Last All Summer Long") which I have to say, (even though loosely based on a book I read) is the best idea I've ever had. That's much to say for my imagination, eh?  
  
~C  
  
----  
  
~Previous Thanks/Authors Note/Etc.: Thanks to Akira Toriyama for the wonderful "Dragonball" series; thanks to Christina Schwarz for "Drowning Ruth", which half inspired me to write this fic; thanks to whoever wrote "The Sentinel"; and Thanks to the forever young, forever talented, forever beautiful Miss Aaliyah for gracing us with her Angelic voice while she was on this Earth.  
~C   
  
***WARNING: A bit strange, that's all. Mysterious, bit confusing. MORE IN LATER CHAPTERS!  
  
====================================================  
Speak!  
~A Dragonball Z Alternate Reality Fanfiction  
====================================================  
Part One- Drowning Pan  
====================================================  
  
***  
  
Pan remembered drowning.  
  
"That's impossible," Juunana would say. He'd sit her on his lap, and shake his head. "You must've been dreaming."  
  
But Pan insisted on it, maintained it even after she should've known better.  
  
***  
  
~{Juunana}~  
  
Of course I lied to Pan. But what was I supposed to say? The truth? Impossible. She'd hate me, for the rest of my life, or more realistically, for the rest of hers. And plus, I'd made a promise with those stupid kids. One I'd have to keep for the rest of my life.   
  
I didn't have time for Pan, anyway. All I could do was worry she didn't or would never tell her parents about what she remembered, or even the dreams she spoke so openly about to me. I almost felt...bad. She was my girlfriend...and I suppose I lov...like her alot. She, of course, still has her flaws. Like that uncanny human ability that all the Organic seem to have...trusting the wrong person. Like when she talks to me, I've wondered how come she hasn't wondered yet as to why I keep trying to divert the truth from her, shunning her from her memories instead of helping. I've even messed up at times, desperately blurting out that she should stop talking about it, then maybe it would finally go away from all of us. But it went straight over her head. She trusts me so much, it's almost, pathetic. Just like that night.  
  
~{Trunks}~  
  
Son Pan is possibly the best female friend I've ever had, second only in best-friend rating by Goten, who is slowly slipping from that position. He avoides me more and more, avoiding eye contact with me when we do happen upon each other. He's obiously ashamed of me. I don't blame him. I'm ashamed of me, too.  
  
~{Goten}~  
  
I couldn't believe what I had heard when the words had come out of Trunks' mouth. "We take this to our grave."  
  
His face was set in stone, a look that scared me. I'd seen when Trunks' face was set in a scowl, or wicked smirk after a winning spar, that look that made you recoil and was all Vegita. But this face. He was serious and determined. He looked like his mother.   
  
There were few times Briefs-san got really, really serious. When she really meant something, was one, and two, when she was extremely dedicated to it, that she would die for it. Like when she was working on a project in her lab. Trunks was dedicated to keeping this secret. He would die to keep it.   
  
~{Bra}~  
  
I'd wanted to scream. My brother, how could he? Keep it to ourselves? No, we had to say something, tell someone. Dad...or mom. If daddy couldn't make it better, mom always could. Then he started rattling out an elaborate lie, this extraordinary web of deceit. The words jumbled in my head. I wanted to scream. I wanted to shout. But I didn't say a thing. I just wondered.  
  
How could Trunks say these things? His girlfriend had just died.  
  
~{Pan}~  
  
I know they're hiding something from me. Trunks, and Bra and Goten. They'll be talking, and when I walk into the room, silence. They're hiding things from me, about that night. If only I could remember!   
  
I try, every day. I visit capsule corp., sometimes running into Juuhachi while there. When I do get there, though, she usually got up and left. I know her human side felt like crying, while her mechanical body prevented it. I felt like crying, too.   
  
They tell me, kaasan and tousan and Trunks and Bra and Goten...that we were close. I wish...I wish I could remember. After all, it took me a week to remember my own family, not to mention my boyfriend. And that was only after they'd spoke to me night and day, talking of good times and such.   
  
But she...Marron...she lies here on this bed...deep in a coma...hooked up to all sorts of wires. Her mother (who I remember only vaguely), refuses to give her up. She's refused Briefs-san's requests to take her off the life supports, unhook her from the multitude of machines she was wired to. "The machines are the only thing keeping her alive," Briefs-san had said.   
  
I know there's a reason for all of it. There has to be. I know there's a reason...for why huge chunks of my memory are missing from my mind...about why they stop talking when I enter the room...about why this blonde haired girl lies on a bed, unconsious and brain dead, her whole life passing her by. If only they'd tell me.  
  
At least I know there's one person I can trust, even though I can remember only few things about him. Beloved Juunana. He wouldn't lie to me.  
  
***  
  
End Note: YOU HAVE TO REVIEW IF YOU WANT ME TO CONTINUE! AREN'T YOU EVEN THE LEAST BIT CURIOUS AS TO WHAT THE *HELL* HAPPENED? Well, ::batts lashes like an innocent angel:: then, review please. 


	2. The Call

Disclaimer: Dragon Ball Z is property of Akira Toriyama, Funimation, and associates of which I am not one.   
  
Thanks/Authors Note/Etc.: Go read "Thumbelina", by Andrea Koenig!  
  
~C   
  
***WARNING: Nuthin' much.  
  
====================================================  
Speak!  
~A Dragonball Z Alternate Reality Fanfiction  
====================================================  
Part Two - The Call  
====================================================  
  
~Bra Breifs:   
  
I watched as Mother made the phone call, hands shaking. I just stared at her, and Goten rubbed his hands up and down my arms and shoulders. I got up and ran into the next home, grabbing the phone just in time to hear Marron's mother answer the phone.  
  
"Marron?" she answered, probably thinking it was only her daughter calling to say that she would be running late coming home, or that her and us had gotten caught up, and would be home soon. I should've left then, but I couldn't.  
  
The choked voice of my Mother on the other end managed to sob out a "hello".  
  
"Bulma?" Juuhachi asked, and I could hear the sheets adjusting.   
  
"Juuhachi?" Mom sniffled. I almost screamed.   
  
"Bulma, what happened?" Juuhachi demanded, sounding cold, but at least slightly concerned.   
  
"Juuhachi. I'm...so sorry. It's, it's Marron..."  
  
***  
  
  
I hung up the phone after Juuhachi stopped speaking. She didn't cry, or scream, when mom told her. And I applauded her for that, I couldn't stop sputtering and crying, my face red and blotchy like a fool. What could I do? Maybe Juuhachi had the right idea. Just shut up, keep it zipped, can it.   
  
Then things couldn't get out,...or in.  
  
***   
  
~{Bulma}~  
  
Trunks and Goten had busted through the doors of our house that night, scaring me out of my sleep. I thought it was a burglar, before I heard the frantic scream for help. It didn't even sound like Trunks, I just knew it was.  
  
~{Goten}~  
  
I was still in shock. From everything, the events of that night, what Trunks had said, I was numb. I thought I was crying, but who knows. It was too cold. I only noticed her when Bulma told me to set her down on the bed. My niece, she was dying. I looked at her for probably the first time since I picked her up off that ice. Her skin was blue, and it almost hurt to touch her. It hurt to look at her.  
  
~{Juunana}~  
  
I stayed back that night, at the ice. I was the only one who's arm wouldn't fall off if they went searching beneath the ice for the letter.  
  
***  
  
The chilly February breeze lifted dead leaves and peoples discarded trash off the ground, lifting them up in dance. Forgetting their woeful existances, the forgotten pieces of the world jumped and danced and swirled around each other, finally falling to the ground in exhaust, until the next day, where they would dance again.  
  
***  
  
He'd fallen asleep on the big blue armchair in the foyer again, waiting for his baby girl to arrive home, as he always did nights she was out late. Glasses half off his face, and newspaper tipped against his nose, he snored quietly, much lighter than his father before him.   
  
Upstairs, his wife slept soundly, and messily. A pillow was between her legs, one under her head, and the other four were somewhere on the ground, along with the discarded comforter.   
  
He awoke with a start, his stomach doing flip flops and his heart beating in his chest like a rabbit's foot. Somethng was wrong with his daughter.  
  
***  
  
~{Gohan}~  
  
As soon as I felt it, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Pan's ki had dropped dangerously low. I jumped up, and ran upstairs to Videl, who was sitting straight up in bed, skin white as milk.  
  
"Something's wrong with Pan." she whispered, trembling ever so slightly.   
  
"I know."  
  
"Where is she?"  
  
"Capsule Corp."  
  
My wife crept across the bed, arms still trembling, and latched on to my neck, too frightened to fly. I carried her out the door, and flew up into the sky, heading towards Capsule Corp.  
  
***  
  
The night was cool and calm when Gohan and Videl creaked open the heavy steel door of the Medical Lab, located inside Capsule Corporation.   
  
The looks of the youths in the room were of absolute terror when they saw him, and Bra looked as though she would cry. He went to her first, resting both hands on her shoulders, looking at her at eye level.  
  
"What happened?" he asked, expecting her to cry and rattle off this excruatingly long and inaudible tale. Instead, she looked down, played with her hands, and began to stutter.   
  
"T...th...they...fe...fell." she whispered, sputterng out each word so the two word sentence seemed to stretch on forever. She swallowed hard- Gohan could almost feel it- and stood abruptly, shrugging his hands from her shoulders. She rushed out of the room, to the annexed stockrooms that led into the main building, where they lived in the top apartments.  
  
"What's wrong with her?" Videl asked quietly. Goten stood jerkily to his feet, and went after his girlfriend, calling after a faint, "she's fine."  
  
***  
  
End Note: REVIEW! 


	3. Shhh...

Disclaimer: Dragon Ball Z is property of Akira Toriyama, Funimation, and associates of which I am not one.   
  
Thanks/Authors Note/Etc.: Review, please!  
  
~C  
  
***WARNING: A bit strange, that's all. Mysterious, bit confusing. MORE IN LATER CHAPTERS!  
  
====================================================  
Speak!  
~A Dragonball Z Alternate Reality Fanfiction  
====================================================  
Part Three - Shhhh...  
====================================================  
  
***  
  
Bra wasn't speaking.  
  
Bulma tried, Trunks tried, even her father...but Bra refused to speak.  
  
***  
  
~{Trunks}~  
  
This wasn't my sister. This couldn't be my sister.   
  
The loud, blue-haired drama queen I'd once known is gone. The girl who'd fight me on just about everything she wore now wears baggy clothes and turtlenecks and long pants- things I didn't think I'd ever even seen my sister in . She hardly ever wore pants, and when she did they were skin tight.  
  
The strange thing is, that I don't blame her. What's the use of talking now? Talking is sharing. And sharing is dangerous.  
  
~{Bra}~  
  
Eveyone hassles me now-a-days. I think they've figured out that I don't talk much, and it bugs them. Maybe, maybe I just don't have anything to say.  
  
~{Pan}~  
  
Last night I had a dream. It was strange, I was with Juunana, and we were making love.  
  
Doesn't sound so strange?   
  
Well, it is. The thing is, we haven't made love since the accident. And, well, I can barely remember anything before the accident. I certainly don't ever remember us making love.   
  
We were in my room, and he came in. I couldn't really see his face- it was one of those dreams. But I could just make out long hair. And blue eyes.  
  
~{Bra}~  
  
Mother decided that it was time for me to return to school last week. I thought I couldn't, because I kept throwing up. But I didn't say anything. Because then she would've asked what was wrong. And then I would have to tell her.  
  
~{Goten}~  
  
I'm haunted by that night at the lake. I can still remember, how good it felt, how wonderful the night was. I can still remember, being with Bra, kissing her, thinking how much of a dream it all felt like. Nightmare, maybe.  
  
~{Juuhachi}~  
  
Bulma says she's dead.  
  
Dead.  
  
She won't get up anymore, or drink juice anymore, or dance anymore.  
  
Just gone.   
  
But it's weird. She's not gone. She right there. I see her, everyday. I sit by her bed, and just wait. Wait for her to wake up get up, dance, sing, and say "Psych! I got you mom!" like she used to do when she was little. She's not gone. She's right here. It doesn't make sense.   
  
I asked Kuririn this, and he sighed. His hair is turning gray, and his face is getting pale. And I can see, I can see that soon, he will leave me too.  
  
"That's just her body, Juu-chan. She's left it, gone up to Heaven some where." He spoke to me as if I was a child. And I felt like a child. Because I couldn't understand it.  
  
If that's her body, why can't she get back in it?  
  
~{Bra}~  
  
Mom came int my room last night.  
  
Mom: Bra, honey, are you up to school tommorrow.  
  
Me (hiding under the covers): [shakes head]  
  
Mom: You've been vomiting. Do you want to go see the doctor?   
  
Me: [shakes head]  
  
Mom: Hun. say something. Talk to me! I know something is bothering you, damnit, Bra!  
  
My throat was sore and raw. Like the words were trying to claw their way out. But I couldn't let them. I ground my teeth down so hard, I thought I could feel the root. I stared up at her.  
  
Mom: [pitiful look] Okay. I understand.  
  
And then she left. I got up and went to my bathroom, and washed my face. I scrubbed it so hard, that there was nothng left. Slick, smooth, clean nothing. Just like the ice.   
  
~~~~ 


	4. Breathing Water

Disclaimer: Dragon Ball Z is property of Akira Toriyama, Funimation, and associates of which I am not one.   
  
Thanks/Authors Note/Etc.: Did you see "Brian's Song?" Wasn't that a good movie? Review, pleeze. P.S. "Breathing Water" will also be the title of my next fic. It's also, more importantly, a novel by T. Greenwood. But don't worry. My fic isn't like, or doesn't borrow from the novel in any way. It's still a good book, though.   
  
~C  
  
***WARNING: Angst. Angst. ANGST.  
  
====================================================  
Speak!  
~A Dragonball Z Alternate Reality Fanfiction  
====================================================  
Part Four: Breathing Water  
====================================================  
  
***  
  
Marron Kuririn officially died on February 1st, a cold, windy Saturday morning.  
  
***  
  
~{Bra}~  
  
I saw her do it. She was visiting again. Well, she never really went home. I poked my head in every once in awhile, wanting badly to ask her if she wanted something to drink. Maybe a sandwich. Of course then I'd realize who I was talking to. And, even if she could eat, the ice in my throat would stop me.   
  
She got up. Real graceful. Pretty blonde hair. Hair that looked like Marron's. She walked over. She grabbed the cord. She pulled it. The machine went 'BEEP! BEEP! BEEEEEEEEEP!' And then shut down. Juuhachi went back to her seat.  
  
The ice, it haunted me now. In my dreams, in my head. Even in my throat, stopping me so I couldn't talk. Sticking me with it's cold shards, freezing metal cutting into my skin, cutting into the tissue in my throat. Blocking the words, burying my words. Killing my words.  
  
***  
  
Everyone knew her favorite color was red. So, a red dress, red flowers, maybe even those red bows she used to wear. Everyone expected that.   
  
But, it was like Juuhachi wasn't thinking. Or more like, overthinking. She was trying to hang on to every bit of her daughter that she could. All she could see was red.  
  
***  
  
~{Gohan}~  
  
When she showed up at the wake in a red dress, most of us understood, save for the younger kids who never knew a Juuhachi that didn't think and Marron's friends. Her favorite color was red. So Juuhachi tied her hair up with a red ribbon, wore all red, picked out a (very expensive) chinese cherry wood red coffin, had only carnations and red roses, dressed her daughter from head to toes in her favorite red outfit, (a little halter top and tight jeans) and did her hair in two straight, smooth pigtails, held up by two raggedy red ribbons she'd had since childhood.  
  
But nobody suspected what afterward- when we all met at Kame Island- she would have planned.  
  
~{Bra}~  
  
I felt terrible. So when we first touched foot to Kame Island, I ran inside immediately to puke. Then I saw the inside.  
  
Streamers. Red streamers, balloons, flowers everywhere. I froze, and almost fell. It looked like a birthday party. For a very little kid- not a...a...a whatever they call that thing after a funeral- for a dead girl. Goten came into the house after me. He wanted to know what was wrong. I knew what was wrong. But I couldn't tell him there. I don't think I can tell him at all.   
  
Me: [point]  
  
Goten: [gasp].  
  
He grabbed my shoulders. Squeezed real tight. Moved his hands down. I remember those hands. Hot hands. Cold night. Hot hands warming me up like cocoa. His arms were around my waist. He was trying to hug from behind. My stomach knotted up. I pulled away, and ran into the bathroom. Into the toilet went breakfast. All I had for breakfast was orange juice, it wasn't much. Then it knotted again. Up into my throat. Out went yesterday's dinner.  
  
Goten: Bra?  
  
The ice in my throat froze. Squeezed together. More puke broke it. Broke it like Marron. The ice had a whole in it.  
  
Me: Mmm Hmm.   
  
The ice froze up again. No more words! it said. It's me and the ice in my head. The ice, that coates my hands and face and just won't go away.   
  
Bra: Tell him. You've got to tell him!  
  
The Ice: No. I'm protecting you.  
  
Bra: You killed my friend!  
  
The Ice: No. Your friend killed you friend.  
  
I knew it wasn't talking about Marron. Marron didn't kill herself. I opened the door, and went out. Goten warmed my shoulders with his hands. The ice closed up in my throat.   
  
If I kicked them both out, who would be left?  
  
~{Trunks}~  
  
I had to poke my dad in the ribs to keep him from laughing. I guess I appealed to his, 'conscience'. Talk about your small targets.   
  
My girlfriend's mother has gone crazy. She eyed me all throughout the funeral. Then she wouldn't look at me afterwards.This woman could've been my mother-in-law but I don't blame her. I killed her daughter.  
  
~{Vegeta}~  
  
The boy hit me in the chest today. I almost punched him, but, after all, I was 'being rude'. Or at least that's what she said, the woman. She has such a stupid name, but I suppose I should no longer refer to her as 'the woman'. So I say 'She', and 'Her'. She still isn't happy.   
  
The boy's mate died. And something is wrong with the girl. She also has a stupid name, Bra. I did not pick it out. She would of had a strong, saiya-jin name. Lucian is a strong, regal name for a saiya-jin princess. She said it was a boy's name. I suggested Xerxes. She said it was a stupid name, and for a boy also, and then yelled at me for not being more interested in the boy, so I went into the gravity room to train.   
  
At the passage cermony- wake, they call it- she handed me a little booklet. I handed it back to her. She squinted her exotic little eyes at me. (People on Vegita-sei all have black eyes. Her's are a perfect cerulean.) She's suspected I cannot read. I told her I could read, and I wasn't lying. I can read; in Saiya-go. Sure I can speak this Chikyuu-jin language, but why in the hell this silly woman expects me to read these alien symbols is beyond me.  
  
~{Pan}~  
  
Bra said her- Marron's- mother pulled the plug. Wait, that's not right. Bra doesn't *say* anything.  
  
Miss Bulma found Bra all huddled under her bed the night Marron, well, the night Marron's body stopped working. It'd be wrong to say she died that night. That girl had been dead for a long time.  
  
"Bra, hun, what's wrong?" Miss Bulma said she'd asked. Bra didn't say anything. She got up from under the bed, and showed Miss Bulma (I still don't remember her much, Miss B) Juuhachi in the room, with the plug to Marron's life supports strewn on the floor. When she went over to Marron, she was finally, really dead.  
  
Juu-kun didn't come to the funeral. Mr. Gohan, dad, was there. He helped, but I wanted Juu-kun there. I told him about he dream.  
  
"Really?" he'd said, and stuck up an eyebrow. I punched him lightly- what I thought was lightly- on the arm, and he fell out of the chair.   
  
"I really have to train you to control your strength, Panny." he said, and pointed a slender mechanical finger at me. He didn't smile, though. I knew he was joking, but sometimes it creeped me out. When he did smile, it came out wicked, this evil little half smile.  
  
"I keep dreaming of us, making love. Your long hair is tickling my face, because your nose it touching mine. And we're both sweating, the sheets are soaked." His face went pale then, and hard. He turned away from me then. I didn't get it.  
  
~{Bra}~  
  
Pan came to see me again today.  
  
Pan: I had another dream.  
  
Me: [cocks head to side]  
  
Pan: Well, me and Juu-kun were, you know.  
  
Me: [nod]  
  
Pan: Well, I told him, we were having a lot of fun. The bed sounded as though it wouls fall apart, the sheets were soaked-  
  
I guess all the color drained from my face then, because she stopped dead.  
  
Pan: That was his reaction! What the hell is going on?  
  
Bra: [Thinking] Um, Pan? Don't tell him about anymore of you dreams, kay? [Actually saying] Uh...  
  
Pan: What are you keeping from me!   
  
She grabbed the front of my shirt, and I jumped off the bed, and out of the room, and out of the house. Pan never chased me before the accident. Never threatened me with her strength. Now she does. She brushes her hair, and wears skirts. She doesn't know who she is. None of us do, anymore.   
  
It's the dead of winter, but I don't mind. Cold air is easier to breathe. Maybe it's the moisture. The itty-bitty invisible drops of H-2-O. Breathing water. But you can't breathe water. I'm inhaling it. And somewhere, Go-kun is breathing it in, too. And Oniisan. And it's filling in our lungs, our thoats, stopping our words and sounds. Filling us up until we're flooded, full to the brim with the wicked water. Filling us up until we're finally dead.   
  
~~~~  
  
End Note: I know Bra sounds a little crazy. It's called post-traumatic stress. Don't worry, though. 


End file.
